All the Stories are True
by Booklover291197
Summary: Ten years have passed since Johnathan's death and life has moved on, Jace and Clary even have a daughter! But the past is threatening to repeat itself and nobody is safe...(This is a sequel to my story 'Easy is the Descent')
1. Chapter 1: Nothing Left to Say

**Hey guys, it has been too long! This is my first chapter since…forever! Lol.**

 **First things first I don't normally write at home as my keyboard was really really bad, so I had to use the college computers unfortunately this lead to me not updating during the holidays. However with it coming up to summer break I decided to get a new keyboard which will hopefully help me be able to update a lot more regularly.**

 **Secondly this is a continuation from the story 'Easy is the Descent' as I know a lot of you wanted me to continue it, hope you're not disappointed :)**

 **Brooklyn, New York – 3am**

The familiar screaming began to ring around the apartment as Clary Herondale was woken once again by the same nightmare. _His_ face flashed vividly in front of her laughing insanely, his black eyes alight will joy, as his hands, covered in fresh blood, lifted the glowing metal whip and…

 _My blood_ she thought hysterically _that is my blood!_

A fresh wave of screaming started, and she felt herself being wrenched into someone's arms. Jace held her to his bare chest whispering reassurances softly into her ear as she tried desperately to calm her sobbing before she started to hyperventilate again. The unique and calming beating of his heart was what she focused on as they began again to drift into an uneasy sleep, as the moon shinned eerily through the gap in the curtains, slightly obscured by the tall buildings surrounding them giving a sense of claustrophobia.

It was that time of year again. This was the day. This was the day ten years ago _he_ had taken her. Taken her straight to hell.

* * *

 **Brooklyn, New York – 7am**

The smell and sound of pancakes filled the small kitchen as Clary began to cook breakfast. She moved around the small area well, considering its cramped size and her clumsiness, the room reflected her fondness for bright vivid colours, a fondness that had only increased after spend over a year in _his_ black and white apartment. The bright yellow walls had dulled slightly over the years but they still did their job.

Clary smiled over at her daughter, who was sat on a stool at the island waiting for her food.

"You look beautiful today." she said affectionately as she passed her the pancakes.

She may be a little bias, well a lot bias, but she thought that her daughter was very beautiful in deed. Simone Jocelyn Maryse Herondale looked a great deal like her father especially her unusual golden eyes, but she had inherited her mother's flaming untameable red hair and a scattering of freckles.

However at the moment her face reddened and she muttered embarrassed "Mum stop" as she look the pancakes.

Clary laughed thinking that she would have had the same reaction if her mother had said the same thing to her when she had been eight years old. But she stopped laughing abruptly, it was painful to think of Jocelyn.

Turing back to the hob and pouring fresh batter into the pain Clary wiped away the wetness in her eyes, you never really got over losing your mother, not really.

A stack of letters were placed on the counter beside her as Jace put them down and kissed her quickly on the cheek. He was dressed in full shadowhunter gear and as Clary turned round he was kissing Simone quickly on top of her head and walking toward the door.

"You're not staying for breakfast?" Clary asked inquiringly.

"Can't" he said excitement in his voice "Alec's found a dragon!" grinning like a small child meeting father Christmas he opened the door.

Looking back quickly he said "Did you order a small child?"

Clary laughed.

"I'm not that small!" the petit Asian girl in the doorway.

The girl, Lily, had been Simone's best friend for many years now and Clary often took them out on play dates. Today happened to be one of those days.

Jace grinned even more widely and left. The girls began to talk loudly and Clary turned to the letters.

The first one had a hand written address, the handwriting was familiar but she couldn't for the life of her remember why. Puzzled she opened it, the letter a single question in the same handwriting;

' _Who knows how long I've been awake now?_

* * *

 **Brooklyn, New York – 10am**

Clary was sitting on the window ledge looking out and thinking hard. The day was cold and the wind was sharp, the first snowflakes were beginning to fall and the roads were shining with ice. She had loved winter during her childhood especially the snow, and living in New York her whole life she had seen more than enough snow.

She watched the people going about their daily lives and found she had a pang of loss, which was not uncommon for her as she had lost so many people but this was different. This was the loss of the life she could have had if Valentine Morgenstern, her father, had never found them, a life were she would not be sitting now trying to work out who was sending her strange messages, a life were she would not have woken up this morning screaming.

No she would probably be talking with Simon, laughing and discussing where her mother had hidden the Christmas presents, she would be looking forward to shopping and going up the the farmhouse with Luke...

 _STOP!_ Clary thought angrily to herself. She had so much to be grateful for, first and for most Jace and Simone.

Shaking herself she looked down and saw a folded piece of paper wedged in the window frame.

Pulling it out Clary opened it up, the paper crackling because of the frost and read another line in the same familiar handwriting;

' _The shadows on my wall don't sleep they keep calling me, beckoning.'_

She ripped the paper into tiny pieces and threw them through the open window, were they fluttered down like confetti, and slammed the window shut causing snow and ice to shower down.

* * *

 **Brooklyn, New York – 12am**

Sitting on a frozen bench in the local park Clary could hear the girls playing close by laughing and giggling. She rubbed her gloved fingers on her temples and tried to think what did the words mean? Who's handwriting was it? What were they trying to say?

If Clary hadn't been so busy trying to figure out the mystery she would have realised that the sound of playing children had stopped. As it was she jumped abruptly when Simone tapped her shoulder with Lily standing a few steps behind her, both girls had similar expressions, expressions of guilt.

"What is it?" Clary asked surprised.

Simone looked once back at Lily and then back at her mother "You said not to talk to strangers." She whispered.

"That's right."

"Well, he said he was your friend…"

"You always ask for the password!" Clary said loudly.

They had come up with a password so that, in the situation that Simone did not know a person claiming to be a 'family friend', the password would let her know whether the person was telling the truth.

"He did!" she said quickly "He did know it and he said to give you this!"

Hold in out her hand Simone handed Clary the piece of paper and for the third time today she read a single line in the unfathomable handwriting;

' _Who knows what's right? The lines keep getting thinner."_

Clary's hands began tremble violently as the pieces slid into place. _Song lyrics_ she thought desperately _these are song lyrics!_

Dread began to pool inside her body numbing her brain.

This song. Not _this_ song. It had been the one she had been listening to before the world went dark, the last song she had listened to before she had been marked with whip marked scars, the last song she had listened to before _he_ had taken her.

Blinking rapidly she leaded forward and grabbed Simone by the shoulders, panicked.

"What did he look like?" She had meant to shout it but all that came out was a petrified whisper.

The image of the word _Erchomai_ crawled across the floor of the Accords Hall in angel blood flashed before her eyes.

 _It was his handwriting…!_

She felt her trembling increase as her daughter began to speak in a terrified voice "His…his hair was…was w-white but he was n-not old." She swallowed nervously "He…he had the d-devils black eyes.'

Clary pulled her daughter to her tightly and it took every bit of her self-control not to start screaming again.

But for the second time today Clary did not notice something that she ought to have done, standing stock still Lily, instead of looking upset or scared as any normal eight year old would do, began to smile…

 **Hope you guy enjoyed this. I brought Johnathan back because no matter how evil I make him I still found it hard to kill him and love him too much for him to stay dead :)**

 **And for those who are wondering the song lyrics in the notes are from the song 'Nothing Left to Say' by Imagine Dragons.**


	2. Chapter 2: Belonging to the Night

**Hey! Ok, so I actually planned to release this a lot sooner (like the day after the first chapter) but I decided to hold off as I wanted to get some of your opinions first, I know I say this a lot but your reviews really really help! x**

 **I was worried that in the last one I made it too obvious who Lily was, but no one has guessed correctly yet so yay! But don't worry you'll find out soon enough.. ;)**

 **Brooklyn, New York – 1.30 pm**

The room was relatively small, witha deep purple carpet and hot pink walls, which were covered in black glittering zebra strips. Simone vaguely remembered her father saying that it reminded him of Isabelle's room, not that she had met her father's sister, she had died before Simone was even born but she had seen pictures since.

The room, like all the others in the house was bright, but for the ceiling, which was not white, but a dark midnight blue with vast constellations painted with the up most accuracy. Her father had moaned for months of having to teach her the stars out of textbooks rather than the actual night sky, however there was he small problem that you could not see the constellations properly in the heart of Brooklyn. So her mother had spent an entire day painting them and it had been worth it, this was much better than a textbook.

It was at this that the two girls lay staring at on the soft carpeted floor, the straight black spill of hair mixing with the bright red as they lay head to head in silence. Simone focused on the star that shinned brighter than all the rest, the morning star.

Lily turned her head slightly and asked tentatively "Will she be alright?"

Simone sighed heavily and sat up. Blowing a stray bit of hair out of her face she stood up and began to pace, before sitting down abruptly on the edge of the bed.

"Yeah. This happens sometimes, something can trigger a breakdown then she locks herself in the bedroom and cries. But she's always alright in the end, dad knows how to calm her down."

Her tone was casual but the look in her eyes and the words she spoke were of that of a much older person and spoke of great distress.

Lily sat up and with a look of sympathy that did not quite meet her eyes "Did you call your dad then?"

"Yep" Simone answered quietly as she looked at her feet.

Eyebrows now drawn together Lily asked hesitantly "Your mum spoke of a password, what was it?"

The act was very well done the hesitancy, the careful questioning. Even if Simone had not been distracted or had been looking for signs of treachery it was very unlikely that she would have noticed the deceit for this was truly a master at work.

Simone looked up, her eyes slightly watery and her voice thick with unshed tears "I hate ducks."

"Excuse me?"

She laughed quietly "That's the password"

Lily baffled for a moment but said bracingly "Fair enough!"

Simone smiled indulgently at her.

Just then the sound of the front door opening reached the girls followed by light footsteps then the sound of a door being opened. Muffled sobbing carried through the door and was cut off quickly again by the door being shut again.

She looked down at Lily to say that, that was probably her dad when she caught weird look on the other girls face. Simone was not sure if it was triumph, annoyance or a bit of both, but the look was only fleeting and it disappeared so quickly that she was not sure whether it had actually been there at all.

Shaking her head she tried again "Lily –"

There was no denying it now a look of irritation defiantly passed over the other girls face.

"What's wrong?" she asked confused now.

Lily looked up at her and raised an eyebrow "Wrong? Nothing is wrong, silly girl. I am just not accustom to things happening earlier than I am expecting them to."

Simone sat open mouthed, a look of hurt and outrage in her golden eyes. But before she could say anything Lily raised a hand for silence and stood up before turned to face the door. She did not open it but listened, there was a faint commotion coming from outside the door.

Simone stood up and started heatedly "Lily –"

The other girl whirled around and shock froze Simone where she stood.

Lily's eyes were pitch black, not like the man's had been earlier, but completely black no whites.

"THAT IS NOT MY NAME!" she bellowed, not with a little girls voice, not even a human voice, but a voice that was like a thousand explosions.

The glass in the windows actually shook.

A look of superiority settled over the girls face when Simone looked shake.

Her eyes slowly began to go back to human form.

"Sit down" she said quietly.

It would have been better if she had shouted, for her tone was calm but it was much more deadly for it.

Simone was still too astonished to move.

The girl's eyes flashed in anger again and she flicked a hand and Simone felt her legs buckle underneath her, as if someone had kicked her in the back of the knees. She fell face fell into the carpet.

Brushing her hair once again out of her eyes as she pushed herself into a sitting position, trying not to panic as she had lost feeling in her legs. The sound of definite fighting was coming from the other side of the door and then a loud bang.

The girl yanked open the door to reveal a man.

 _The_ man.

He stood towering over them his pale white hair, crumpled shirt and elegant hands were shinning with fresh blood. There was a look of complete shock on his sharp, normally perfectly controlled features as he looked down at the little girl.

With a single mirthless laugh he said in a disturbed whisper " _Lilith?_ "


	3. Chapter 3: The Dagger

**Hey guys :) Thank you again for the reviews, keep them coming ;)**

 **I really enjoyed writing this chapter, hope you enjoyed reading it as much x**

 **Brooklyn, New York – 1.30 pm**

Sobs wracked her body as she sat on the floor her head in her arms.

 _WEAK!_ Screamed a voice in her mind, which sounded remarkably like Valentine's. _You are weak! The demon has beaten you!_

Clary was used to the voices in her head by now, they had developed properly when Johnathan had left her alone in that infernal basement with no one to talk to, no window to see out of and only own terrible thoughts for company.

 _The real you is gone!_ This voice was worse, so much worse, because it spoke in Simon's ever so familiar voice. _The real Clary would not have been beaten so easily, you are nothing more than a shell!_

The tears had stopped flowing now, even though her face was still wet. Only the dry heaving sobs were left.

 _He can't be back! He was dead. Definitely dead. I saw it. I did it._

 _Ah._ Countered a different voice simply. _But he's been dead before, hasn't he?_

She propped her chin upon her arms, which were wrapped around her knees, and blinked through the fresh waves of terrified tears.

The room around her was burn orange, a colour meant to symbolise her childhood room in an vain attempt to bring some normality into her life.

 _Ha!_ The voice that sounded so much like Jocelyn's laughed loudly. _Normal? You were never normal. It was a lie! Normality has the cotton wool I wrapped you up in and I was right to wasn't I? You are too weak to handle this life. You are broken!_

She wished Jace was here. Not to see her crying obviously, he had seen her do that way too much over the last years, but because his presence was like a talisman to shield her from the voices that threatened to pull her under and drown her in misery.

No sooner had the thought formed in her mind there was the sound of the front door, then the bedroom door opening.

It was not Jace who stood there.

It was Johnathan.

He stood there looking much the same as he had done the last time Clary had seen him. The same pale white hair, the same sharp features, even the same self-satisfied smirk that seem to be permanently etched onto his face.

Although the eyes were back to their usual pitch black, he had a crisp white shirt on which emphasised the darkness of his eyes making them almost gleam in his colourless face.

There was also the absence of the dagger which had been stuck though his heart.

As if he had seen the thought run through her mind he smirked even wider and plucked out the dagger from his weapons belt and held it up for her inspection. It was completely clean.

"How?" Clary heard the words leave her mouth as if a stranger had spoken them, her voice cracked and hoarse from the earlier tears that seemed to have dried up completely. "How have you come back?"

"The bus."

She blinked once.

"Well, not _only_ a bus obviously, but you know, a train and a plane –"

She made and impatient noise and he rolled his eyes.

"Very well then. Always straight to the point aren't you little sister?" His voice was casual but his eyes flashed with dangerous excitement that Clary associated with pain and he was now twirling the dagger between his fingers stalking toward her like a predator who had spotted its prey.

"If you must know I didn't _come back_ at all. You didn't do your job very well."

Clary felt as if he had slapped her and her voice came out low "I did. I felt it go through your heart."

His eyes practically glowed as his malicious grin spread even wider. "As did I. But you didn't use the right blade."

He gave no sign that he moved but Clary felt something speed past her right ear and look around to see the dagger embedded in the wall inches from her head.

Suddenly there was a blast of sound. The words 'That's not my name' reverberated around the room in an otherworldly voice and the windows shook in their frames.

Clary moved to stand up, but he was in front of her in seconds, kneeling down as she was still on the floor.

Johnathan was apparently unworried about the voice and instead said casually "Look at it."

It took her a few seconds to realise what he meant. Not wanting to take her eyes of him when he was this close she ever so slightly turned her head to look at the blade before looking back at him.

"Well?" he asked watching her carefully.

"Well, what?"

He let out an irritable sigh.

"What kind of blade is it?"

She glanced at it again quickly.

"Demon metal?"

"Exactly" he breathed leaning back "Don't you understand?"

When she still looked blank he continued a sense of restless urgency about him.

"You stabbed Jace with Michael's sword. That burned out the demon influence in him. But it didn't kill him because he has more heavens than hells."

She nodded slowly.

"You stabbed me with a dagger made of demon metal. That burned out the angels influence in me. But it didn't kill me because –"

"Because you are more hells than heavens." She finished for him stonily.

He laughed once, the sound was chilling.

She smiled back triumphantly and his smirk slipped slightly in confusion.

"I am not weak. You did not break me."

And with a sudden surge of power she wrenched the dagger from the wall and swung it toward her brother's temple.

At the last moment he grabbed her arm and crushed it against the wall knocking the dagger from her hand and breaking her arm in several places. She did not scream but kicked him hard in the ribs succeeding in moving him away from her.

Standing up Clary pick up what she recognised as Simone's gymnastics baton and hit him as hard as she could around the head, she hit her target and saw blood fly everywhere.

He responded by kicking her hard in the midriff, winding her, and punching her repeatedly in the side if the head until she became disorientated and dropped to the ground once more.

Johnathan bent down and whispered softly "I missed you too little sister. Give Jace a message from me will you. 920. That's all 920."

She heard his footsteps move away from her and the door slam behind him. She heard a final heart wrenching oddly familiar scream rip the air as the darkness overwhelmed all.


	4. Chapter 4: Falling into Place

**Ok, I know it's been a ridiculously long time since my last update but I basically took the summer off to relax and read loads.**

 **I've been writing this chapter for a few days, around the six essays I'm currently trying to write for college in a week.**

 **I meant to update this on Friday but stupidly left it on my college computer so couldn't update it :/**

 **I apologise if this isn't as good as or a bit shorter than my previous chapters, as it's been three months since I've written a story so bear with me as I get back into the flow.**

 **There was a review on the last chapter from an anonymous reader that I would like to address. They were confused about the timeline of the story, so this story is a continuation from my pervious one 'Easy is the descent' which itself was placed after 'City of Lost Souls' which I started before 'City of Heavenly Fire' came out. If you are at all confused with what had happened so far please read the last chapter of the fanfic mentioned above that should fill you in.**

 **The next chapter should be up sometime next week. As always I would love all of your reviews x**

 _With a single mirthless laugh he said in a disturbed whisper "Lilith?"_

The small girl, even more dwarfed by his tall frame, began to laugh hysterically as her pupils bloomed out again. But instead of stopping at her eyes the darkness spilled over her lashes, with the thickness of oil paint, and made its way down her body covering every square inch of flesh, hair and cloth. Until it melted away her body and only a puddle of the putrid black liquid was left, the ringing laughter still echoed in the ears of the watchers.

Johnathan stared at the spot in fascination for a split second before a scream that must have broken the sound barrier erupted from the girl he had not previously noticed.

On and on it went with no sign of stopping.

The sound was cut off abruptly when she caught sight of the look of annoyance on his face.

That look alone, with the demon shining through the black orbs barley concealing the thing within, would have been enough to start off the screaming again had the front door had not begun to open.

* * *

In a split second Johnathan transported himself back to his apartment, the last thing he needed right now was to have a faceoff with, who he assumed would be Jace.

 _Fuck!_ Johnathan thought to himself everything had been going so well _How is she back? What does she want? Is she angry?_

The haunting laughter filled his mind again as a chill went down his spine, _Of course she was pissed! Why wouldn't she be? I effectively betrayed and killed her, hadn't I?_

And then there was Clary. He had failed to take her, what an idiotic thing to do! He had made sure that the rings magic was specially altered so that anyone sharing the same blood as him would transport automatically. He should have just used that connection to get her out and _then_ gone and investigated!

A frightened intake of breath behind him made him snap out of his thoughts.

Turning at blinding speed he spotted her. A girl, not much taller than the one who had melted before him only moments before, stood shaking. She looked up at him with those oh so familiar golden eyes that finally reflected the fear that he had failed to put in their older version.

Flashing his teeth at her with a terrifying grin, that caused the look of fear on her face to escalate as intended, he had a single wonderful thought.

 _Brilliant!_

* * *

Pushing the door open Jace was greeted will the smell of pepper and sulphur. Before he could process this he step right into the puddle of sticky black liquid.

"What the…?" he said loudly.

Finally taking in his surroundings he felt his stomach drop.

The door that led to his and Clary's room had been wrenched almost off of its hinges, and a full bloody hand print sat on the surface surrounded by fingerprints. The liquid that he was currently standing in was letting off the smell that he associated with demons and magic.

"Clary. Simone." he whispered harshly before yelling it and running into the room.

The scene inside was so much worse than the one outside. The orange wall opposite him was splattered ceiling to floor with blood. That same blood covered the floor, which now bore his own black footprints. A gymnastics baton lay next to a blade, which he was pretty sure was made of demon metal.

A foot, wearing a familiar black converse, stuck out from behind the bed. He rushed nimbly to her side and felt for a pulse.

Relief flooded his system as the little beat jumped against his fingers.

She looked bad. Really bad, her arm stuck out at a funny angle and there were bloody footprints on her ribs. Blood covered the right side of her face, it had congealed in her hair and bruises were beginning to form over most of her face.

Gathering her up against him as she began to stir Jace began to rock slightly. Anger rose up like flames in his chest.

"Simone?" Clary whimpered softly.

There had been no one else in the house when he entered, Jace knew instinctively.

His mind went blank as horror set in.

* * *

Far away from the apartment in Brooklyn and even further still from the one in Alicante the laughing continued as a small Asian girl, in a long white dress, sat cross legged in front of a full length mirror watching.

Always watching.


End file.
